Amazon spreads its wings to Nigeria with direct delivery services

KoliTech

Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday April 30, 2015 at 12:3:32:

Amazon is trying to expand to more markets around the world by offering more of her products with direct shipping to buyers in those countries courtesy of Amazon's global shipping program.

About 10 years ago, Amazon didn't offer direct shipping to Nigeria except for a few items such as Books, CDs, DVDs and some T-shirts but now they are even offering to deliver more items and you can find links to those items here. They however did always accept payments from Nigerian issued cards such as Visa or MasterCard.

It seems that as Nigeria enters the league of fast growing countries economically, having the biggest market in Africa and with Alibaba spreading it's wings to North America, it only made sense for the US shopping giant to also spread to Africa and their list now includes Nigeria and Kenya. They already sell and deliver directly to South Africa.

As a result of the seeming ignorance Amazon had about the value of online shoppers from Nigeria, they didn't offer direct shipping to Nigeria for a while but only accepted payments from Nigerian issued cards and rather delivered to only US addresses. This allowed mostly Nigerian residents and those with US contacts in the USA to buy things on Amazon with a view to shipping them to Nigeria afterwards. That made Nigerians spend more money on shopping since they'd have to pay higher fees for shipping and custom.

With Amazon now offering direct shipping to Nigeria, an online shopper from Nigeria no longer has to worry about all that as he'll be able to estimate all his international shopping fees in advance even before placing an order on Amazon.

During my online shopping experiment on Amazon after they included Nigeria, I decided to buy flash drives and some electronic gadgets from their store with a view to getting a direct delivery from Amazon. I was able to see my total purchase fee, the international shipping cost and the custom duties payable even before I placed my order. I placed my order and made payment with a Naira card and was surprised to receive my goods within 5 working days from a UPS guy. I paid no other fees except what I paid during checkout at Amazon. They are really reliable to shop with and I see more Nigerians taking advantage of this new Amazon global shipping service to buy more things from Amazon.

In Nigeria, there are many fast growing online shopping websites which allow Nigerians to buy the things they want locally, get a 24 hr deliver to their homes or office and choose to pay Naira on delivery. Some of these top shopping websites include Jumia Nigeria, Konga, Dealdey, Gloo, Adibba, Kaymu, MyStore, Kara and Taafoo. Will Amazon's global shipping service now be a threat to them? Well, only time will tell but I have to say that Amazon sure has more products that most local shopping websites I've seen in Nigeria and most of their items are really of high quality.

Amazon USA now allows Nigerians to buy things from their online store directly, pay with their bank issued Naira Visa or Mastercard and be able to get the items delivered in as little as 5 working days using UPS. I recently had a good experience with this and I must say I'm satisfied.

If you intend buying things on Amazon from Nigeria, you can now do so by going to this place. You'd see a list of links to items that you can buy and when you see an item marked as "Eligible floor international shipping", then chances are that it can be shipped directly to Nigeria to you.

Amazon's recent 2015 entry as one of the online shopping destinations for Nigerian residents that offer direct delivery services may prove to be tough competition to local brands that are still growing. However, I think it would rather be a wider window of opportunities for online shoppers like me who may be willing to buy particular products or digital services that may not be available at local online stores in Nigeria.

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Comments:

Re: Amazon spreads its wings to Nigeria with direct delivery services Reply by Yusuff abogunde on Monday May 25, 2015 at 19:25:59:

Hello
please i need your response to this
i have a friend abroad who want to order a $60 used laptop to me here in Nigeria,
my question is
can amazon or ebay ship it to Nigeria since it will be a dollar payment and nor Naira
please i need your quick response
thanks

Re: Amazon spreads its wings to Nigeria with direct delivery services Reply by Felix Okoli on Monday May 25, 2015 at 19:25:59:

Amazon and ebay don't offer shipping to Nigeria exactly. eBAY doesn't totally while Amazon offers delivery for some items which excluded laptops for now. You can still buy things on Amazon using your Nigerian Mastercard or Visa but you'd also need to make use of a US shipping service to get the items directly to Nigeria. My US shipping service will give you a US address to use for shopping on Amazon and later send it to you in Nigeria using UPS, DHL or Fedex.

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